


Here we are, no one else

by pikeisaman



Category: Trailer Park Boys
Genre: Child Abandonment, Fucked Up Familes, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-07
Updated: 2014-03-07
Packaged: 2018-01-14 21:31:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1279588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pikeisaman/pseuds/pikeisaman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Julian has been telling Bubbles that everything will be alright ever since they were kids.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here we are, no one else

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd. I might add more about Ricky and Julian later.

It was cold in the shed behind Julian’s house, so Bubbles tightened his blanket around him. His parents had been gone since yesterday morning, and he still didn’t know why they had left but they had told him to stay so he would stay. Bubbles didn’t like disobeying his mom, she was never angry when he did, only disappointed. That was the worst.

He was hungry, scared, his blanket wasn’t warm enough, and he was starting to suspect that his parents would be gone longer than they said they would. Momma had wrapped him up in the blanket carefully, and there had been tears in her eyes when she told him to stay in there and wait for them to come back.

What’d he done to make her cry like that?

The shed door creaked open, and Bubbles scrambled into a ball, but then Julian peeked through the crack and waved.

”Hey Bubbles.”

Bubbles waved back. He didn’t know how to explain that he had been hiding in Julian’s shed, but he saw that Julian was holding a bundle in his arms. On top of the bundle was a sandwich, and his stomach growled.

Julian sat down next to him on the floor. “I saw you in here last night. Are you hiding from your folks?” He asked as if hiding from your parents was the most natural thing in the world.

Bubbles shook his head, his eyes on the sandwich. “My mom told me I should wait here until she came back.”

"Oh okay." Julian said with a shrug. "When’s she coming back?"

"I dunno."

The conversation fell flat. Bubbles shivered in his blanket, and tried not to feel hungry. Maybe Julian had made the sandwich for himself. Maybe he thought Bubbles had already eaten. Maybe his parents would be back any second and they’d take him home and make him some soup.

He was so caught up in his fantasy that he was startled when Julian threw the blanket at him.

"Here." Julian mumbled, looking away. "I got you that. It’s okay you can keep it, my grandma’s got loads."

Bubbles gratefully wrapped the blanket around himself. It was as soft as kitty fur. Next Julian slid the sandwich across the floor to him, and Bubbles snatched it up before he could change his mind, devouring it.

"Thanks Julian," he blurted out halfway through. "I was real hungry."

Keeping his eyes on the floor, Julian shrugged. “When I lived with my dad sometimes he’d-forget stuff, and that fucking sucked. Maybe your parents just forgot you too.”

"My mom wouldn’t forget me," Bubbles protested. "She told me to STAY. She said she was coming BACK."

Julian just kept looking at the floor. “Yeah.”

The silence dragged on, but Bubbles couldn’t stop thinking about what Julian had said. His bottom lip started to quiver, and he could feel his throat getting all choked up like it always did when he was upset. Sniffing, he tried to wipe at his eyes discreetly, so that Julian wouldn’t know he was crying like a dumb baby. He always cried, and the boys made fun of him for it-everyone but Julian and Ricky anyway.

Streams of tears started to run down his face, and his glasses fogged up really bad. Julian made a surprised noise, but Bubbles was too far gone to listen.

He couldn’t stop himself from choking out around the lump in his throat, and finally he cried out, ”She wouldn’t forget me Julian!”

Jamie said that he sounded like walrus when he cried, and Bubbles didn’t know what that was, but Ricky had beaten him up for it. Whatever it was, he must have sounded like a big one now, because he was pretty sure that the next block over could hear him.

He didn’t care, he was tired, and scared, and it wasn’t FAIR for Julian to compare his dumb ol’ dad who was always drunk or in jail to Bubbles’ parents, his parents CARED about him.

His wailing was abruptly stopped when something hit his side with force, knocking him into the wall. It was Julian, with his arm around his shoulder, and he looked really upset, like he might start crying too any minute.

"Shit Bubbles, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you sad,"

Bubbles just started to cry again, and lunged back at him, curling up against his chest. Julian stiffened for a second, before hugging him back tentatively and then tighter and tighter. It would have been really bad if anyone had seen them, but Bubbles just needed to hug someone so bad at that moment, or he knew everything would be so much worse.

"It’ll be alright Bubbles," Julian whispered. "You don’t need to cry, your parents will come back, I promise. "

Thinking of what he was going to do until then, Bubbles clung even tighter than before. Bubbles was like twice Julian’s size but if it hurt him, he didn’t say. He just took it all, sat back and let Bubbles be a huge crybaby who leaked all over him.

"I’ll look after you buddy," Julian said and suddenly he was all determined, like he was when he planned their hockey games. Like he knew exactly what they needed to do. "That way even if they _never_ come back it’s gonna be okay Bubbles. ‘cause I’ll always be here.”

"You promise?" Bubbles whispered.

"Cross my heart and swear to die."

He should have let go then, he knew he should have. Instead, he stayed, with his arms wrapped around Julian, who must have been cold in his thin teeshirt. Julian never complained though, and he sat with Bubbles, until they fell asleep.


End file.
